John Willard Toland (June 29, 1912 – January 4, 2004) was an American writer and historian. He is best known for a biography of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

and a

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

-winning history of World War II-era Japan, '' The Rising Sun''.

Biography

Toland was born in 1912 in

La Crosse, Wisconsin La Crosse ( ) is a city in La Crosse County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. Positioned alongside the Mississippi River, La Crosse is the largest city on Wisconsin's western border. La Crosse's population was 52,680 as of the 202 ...

. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire in 1932 and from

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

in 1936 and attended the

Yale School of Drama The David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University is a graduate professional school of Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1924 as the Department of Drama in the School of Fine Arts, the school provides training in ...

for a time. His original goal was to become a

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

. In the summers between college years, he traveled with

hobo A hobo is a migrant worker in the United States. Hoboes, tramps, and bums are generally regarded as related, but distinct: a hobo travels and is willing to work; a tramp travels, but avoids work if possible; a bum neither travels nor works. Et ...

s and wrote several plays with hobos as central characters, none of which were performed. He recalled in 1961 that in his early years as a writer he had been "about as big a failure as a man can be". He claimed to have written six complete novels, 26 plays, and a hundred short stories before completing his first sale, a short story for which ''

The American Magazine ''The American Magazine'' was a periodical publication founded in June 1906, a continuation of failed publications purchased a few years earlier from publishing mogul Miriam Leslie. It succeeded '' Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly'' (1876–1904) ...

'' paid $165 in 1954. At one point he managed to get an article on dirigibles into '' LOOK'' magazine; it proved extremely popular and led to his career as a historian. Dirigibles were the subject of his first full-length published book, ''Ships in the Sky'' (1957). His most important work may be ''The Rising Sun'' (Random House, 1970), for which he won the

Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction The Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are awarded annually for the "Letters, Drama, and Music" category. The award is given to a nonfiction book written by an American author and published du ...

in 1971."General Nonfiction"
The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-11-12. Based on original and extensive interviews with high-ranking Japanese officials who survived the war, the book chronicles the

Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

from the military rebellion of February 1936 to the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. It won the Pulitzer because it was the first book in English to tell the history of the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

from the Japanese point of view, rather than the prevailing American one.

Novels

While predominantly a writer of nonfiction, Toland also published two historical novels, ''Gods of War'' and ''Occupation''. He says in his 1997 autobiography that he earned little money from his prize-winner '' The Rising Sun'' but was set for life from the earnings of ''Adolf Hitler'', for which he also did original research.

Death

Toland died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

on January 4, 2004, at Danbury Hospital in

Danbury, Connecticut Danbury ( ) is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located approximately northeast of New York City. Danbury's population as of 2020 was 86,518. It is the third-largest city in Western Connecticut, and the seventh-largest ...

Books

Non-Fiction *''Ships in the Sky: The Story of the Great Dirigibles'' (New York: Henry Holt; London: F. Muller, 1957) *''Battle: The Story of the Bulge'', 1959, *''But Not in Shame: The Six Months After Pearl Harbor'', 1962, *''The Dillinger Days'', 1963, *''The Flying Tigers'' – Copyrighted 1963 First Printing From Laurel-Leaf Books 1979. Published by Dell Publishing *''The Last 100 Days: The Tumultuous and Controversial Story of the Final Days of World War II in Europe'', 1966, reprint (2003) *'' The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936–1945'', 1970 HC, , reprint *''The Great Dirigibles: Their Triumphs & Disasters'', 1972, *
Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography
', 1976, . *''No Man's Land: 1918, The Last Year of the Great War'', 1980, *''Infamy: Pearl Harbor And Its Aftermath'', 1982, *''In Mortal Combat: Korea 1950–1953'', 1991, *''Captured by History: One Man's Vision of Our Tumultuous Century'', 1997, Novels *''Gods of War'', 1985, *''Occupation'', 1987,

Articles

*'Death of a Dirigible', February 1959, ''American Heritage'', Volume X Number 2, pp 18–23

References

External links

John Toland Papers
at the National Archives Catalog * {{DEFAULTSORT:Toland, John 1912 births 2004 deaths Deaths from pneumonia in Connecticut Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction winners 20th-century American non-fiction writers Historians of Nazism American historians of World War II Writers from La Crosse, Wisconsin Williams College alumni 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American historians 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers American male novelists David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University alumni Novelists from Wisconsin American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers Historians from Wisconsin Writers from Danbury, Connecticut